KATHMANDU, SEPTEMBER 3 Valley Municipality Forum, a joint body of Kathmandu and Lalitpur metropolitan cities and 16 municipalities inside Kathmandu valley, has expressed concern over the decision of the local administrations to allow sale, distribution and transportation of construction materials amid prohibitory order in place. A meeting of three district administrations of the valley held yesterday had decided to extend the ongoing prohibitory order till September 9. The prohibitory order extended by the local administrations for the second time by changing its modality allows hardware shops and other stores of construction materials to open from 2:00 to 9:00pm. Vehicles transporting construction materials may also ply as per the new prohibitory order issued yesterday. Issuing a press statement today, the forum warned that there was no point imposing prohibitory order if shops and stores of construction materials and tippers were allowed to operate for seven hours a day. The statement signed by the mayor of Lalitpur Metropolitan City and forum chairperson, and mayor of Madhyapur Thimi Municipality and forum Secretary Madan Sundar Shrestha read, “We would like to call on the local administrations to review their decision taken yesterday in a manner to allow only the shops and businesses related to essential goods and services to be operated till 11:00am, on a daily basis.” The forum warned that the decision of the local administrations to ease the prohibitory order would only worsen the COVID-19 crisis. “Therefore, the local administration should correct the new prohibitory order to make the fight against COVID-19 more effective,” read the statement. A version of this article appears in e-paper on September 4, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.